MATLAB Function Reference (Volume 2: Graphics)

Figure PropertiesUsing theOpenGLRendererThe figure Renderer property supports a new value that enables MATLAB touse OpenGL as the renderer. The command to enable OpenGL on the currentfigure is:set(gcf,'Renderer','OpenGL')OpenGL increases performance for most 2-D and 3-D graphs drawn withMATLAB.Hardware vs. Software OpenGL ImplementationsThere are two kinds of OpenGL implementations – hardware and software.The hardware implementation makes use of special graphics hardware toincrease performance and is therefore significantly faster than the softwareversion. Many computers have this special hardware available as an option ormay come with this hardware right out of the box.Software implementations of OpenGL are much like the ZBuffer renderer thatis available on MATLAB version 5.0, however, OpenGL generally providessuperior performance to ZBuffer.OpenGL AvailabilityOpenGL is available on all computers that MATLAB runs on with theexception of VMS. MATLAB automatically finds hardware versions of OpenGlif they are available. If the hardware version is not available, then MATLABuses the software version.The software versions that are available on different platforms are:• On UNIX systems, MATLAB uses the software version of OpenGL that isincluded in the MATLAB distribution.• On MS-Windows NT 4.0, OpenGL is available as part of the operatingsystem.• On MS-Windows 95, OpenGL is included in the Windows 95 OSR 2 release.If you do not have this release, the libraries are available on the Microsoft ftpsite.Microsoft version is available at the URL:ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/softlib/mslfiles/opengl95.exe2-182